Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

wesk702

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 7, 2007
1,809
368
The hood
This is the jump I'm making. I could have sworn I saw one review of this jump, but can't find it now. Just wanted to see if anyone else had made similar jumps, and am requesting some experiences with reviews. Thanks
 
This is the jump I'm making. I could have sworn I saw one review of this jump, but can't find it now. Just wanted to see if anyone else had made similar jumps, and am requesting some experiences with reviews. Thanks

you shouldn't worry about it...what's the concern? just buy it since it's new, better performance.
 
As I'm sure you know, my comparison to a 4,1 is pretty compelling but I went from a 4-core to a 6-core... If you're coming from an 8-core 3,1 you'll probably still benefit from moving to a 6-core 6,1... and, of course, an 8-core 6,1 will blow the old 8-core away.

The old 3,1 Mac Pro has a number of areas that are relatively ancient tech now...
- Old FSB (pre-Nehalem) architecture
- Poor dual-channel memory performance with DDR2 FBDIMMS
- Limited PCIe lanes
- SATA2
- USB2

nMP:
- Hyperthreading
- On-die memory controller and PCIe controller
- Quad channel DDR3 memory
- 40 PCIe 3.0 and 8 PCIe 2.0 lanes
- USB3
- PCIe SSD

Bottom line... this is the year to put that 2008 out to pasture! ;)
 
As I'm sure you know, my comparison to a 4,1 is pretty compelling but I went from a 4-core to a 6-core... If you're coming from an 8-core 3,1 you'll probably still benefit from moving to a 6-core 6,1... and, of course, an 8-core 6,1 will blow the old 8-core away.

The old 3,1 Mac Pro has a number of areas that are relatively ancient tech now...
- Old FSB (pre-Nehalem) architecture
- Poor dual-channel memory performance with DDR2 FBDIMMS
- Limited PCIe lanes
- SATA2
- USB2

nMP:
- Hyperthreading
- On-die memory controller and PCIe controller
- Quad channel DDR3 memory
- 40 PCIe 3.0 and 8 PCIe 2.0 lanes
- USB3
- PCIe SSD

Bottom line... this is the year to put that 2008 out to pasture! ;)


Oh yeah, I definitely saw your review and loved it. Since mine is still processing, I love reading about other's experiences about the leap. I'm actually coming from a single quad core 3,1 so I'm pretty stoked.
 
Just to reassure you, my 2011 i7 MBP is faster than my 3.1.
The Mac Pro 2013 with hyperthreading and virtual cores will crush the 3.1.
Anyway, the 3.1 is a very capable machine for todays standards. (put a good GPU, SSD).
 
One question not asked is, what apps do you run on the 3,1? This 3,1 being crushed by this and that is meaningless without specific apps. Do not buy a new computer based on "benchmarks!" :p
A specific software can make all the difference in the world. Use Adobe Premiere with a CUDA card and fast raid and no codec is too heavy. Try the same footage with Avid (new engine coming soon) and you'd swear it's 6K!
The moral of the story is it's not always necessary to chase hardware to make up for under achieving software! :eek:
 
Just to reassure you, my 2011 i7 MBP is faster than my 3.1.
The Mac Pro 2013 with hyperthreading and virtual cores will crush the 3.1.
Anyway, the 3.1 is a very capable machine for todays standards. (put a good GPU, SSD).

An upgraded 3,1 can hold it's own. My maxed out 3,1 with SSD/Solo X2/GTX 680 certainly did anyway against a 2012 15 inch retina doing drunken photoshop racing at Xmas with a pal of mine. Double the ram of his certainly helped as well as the 680 giving it a big help lol. I took the Mickey so much since he's going to order a nMP to put me back in my place :p

So there's a bit more life in the old beast yet till I pick up a dual socket 4/5,1 up cheaply cos a tower is far better suited to my needs anyway..
 
I posted this one. I'm not big on benchmarks, more of a review on the experience, etc.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1695308/

Bingo, that's the one that I was looking for. Thanks man!

----------

One question not asked is, what apps do you run on the 3,1? This 3,1 being crushed by this and that is meaningless without specific apps. Do not buy a new computer based on "benchmarks!" :p
A specific software can make all the difference in the world. Use Adobe Premiere with a CUDA card and fast raid and no codec is too heavy. Try the same footage with Avid (new engine coming soon) and you'd swear it's 6K!
The moral of the story is it's not always necessary to chase hardware to make up for under achieving software! :eek:

The 3,1 has always been good to me but had the opportunity to upgrade so I dove in. Mostly using it for Logic Pro, ableton, soundforge, the now defunct bias Peak, and some light final cut. The 3,1 was always plenty fast and can't imagine how much faster a computer can get but would be more than happy to find out.
 
This is the jump I'm making. I could have sworn I saw one review of this jump, but can't find it now. Just wanted to see if anyone else had made similar jumps, and am requesting some experiences with reviews. Thanks

Going from an 8 core 3.1 macpro with 8 gb ddr2 (no further upgrades, and severe physical damage from moving and many floods), to a 12c/64gb ddr3 ecc/1TB ssd/D700

Looking forward to the leap in power, I basically live in Final Cut so it should be pretty noticeable. Could come in about an hour, the wait is killing me...
 
macperformanceguide.com has an extensive comparison between the nMP and his "old" MP (dual 3.33 GHz hex), which in itself is a beast compared to the 3.1.

It's very focused on photoshop and filters/functions related to that so if you are thinking of another usage that site might not be super useful. But still, very extensive coverage.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.